We’re Teaching Our Kids To Swim, And It Just Got Easier

How did you first learn to swim ? Hopefully most of you will say that you had a great experience learning how to swim. But I’m almost positive there are some of you that wish the experience could have gone differently. This post is for parents and caretakers that are looking for ways to make the swimming experience positive and fun. This post is sponsored by SwimWays as part of an Influencer Activation for Influence Central and all opinions expressed in my post are my own.

Learn To Swim With SwimWays Swim Steps Program

The SwimWays 3-step “Swim Steps” program was designed to help teach kids how to swim with confidence. It includes a variety of water floatation products to aid parents & kids with the skills they’ll need to succeed at learning to swim.

Step 1 is Water Introduction. Baby floats are used in the first step to help babies 3 – 24 months get introduced to the water, by keeping them supported and balanced while they have fun.

Step 2 is Water Exploration. So for kids ages 2-6 there are floatation products that are permanent and secure to their bodies to help them balance while learning to paddle.

Step 3 is Swim Training. Kids ages 2-9 can start learning to swim with “training wheels” on. You can easily add or remove floatation pads as needed. So the wearable system can be adjusted for the level of support your kid needs as they learn.

Too bad swim floats like these weren’t around when I was first introduced to the water. I definitely had my share of bad water experiences as a child and didn’t actually learn to swim until I was an adult. In fact, it was only a few years ago when I learned.

Learning and Teaching To Swim Just Got Easier | Naturally Stellar

I don’t want that for my children. I want them to love and respect the water. I want them to learn how to swim young for their own personal safety and maybe even for the safety of others. You’ll never know when those skills may come in handy.

We had a fun time testing out my daughter’s new swim float. It was her first time in a pool and this was really easy to set up. It simply pops open and you snap on the canopy to the float with ease. It was not so easy to blow up the 2 floatation tubes using the valves on the bottom of the float though. In hindsight, I should have used a pump instead of my mouth. My cheeks were sore! But that’s one of the safety measures. You could blow air in and with each breath, never feel it escaping out of the valve (I highly recommend that you always remember to close off your valves for safety).

SwimWays Spring Baby Float with Adjustable Canopy | Naturally Stellar

Spring Baby Float Features

Other features include a storage bag, mesh play space for water toys and for splashing, a mesh seat, removable sun canopy with UPF +50 and an inner spring on the outside edge to keep it stable.

Teach Kids How To Swim While Having Fun! | Naturally Stellar

Folding this up can be a little tricky too. But once you have it down, it’s like second nature to close it up.

After we got out of the pool, I wasn’t able to fold her float back up into the carrying case, because I had nothing to push the inside valve with, to release the air. It worked out great though because it fit easily into my trunk and dried out quickly when we got it home. I released the air with a pen cap and folded it back up, then slipped it into the case until our next pool day.

I absolutely love this float and highly recommend this to any parent looking to teach a baby how to swim. It gave me confidence as a parent and my daughter’s first pool experience was great. She didn’t even want to get out of the water. On a scale of 1 to 5 stars, I’d give this a 4.5! If it came with a tiny pump, I’d give it a 5. Next, I’m buying my son some Step 3 training gear!

National Learn To Swim Day

Pools are starting to open up in May and drowning is the #2 leading cause of accidental injury-related death in kids ages 0-14. Also, drowning is the #1 cause of accidental injury-related death in kids ages 1-4. Those statistics are mind-blowing!

When I was a young teen, I lost a good friend to drowning. She was only 14 years old and I still miss her dearly. Her death was preventable. So, that’s one of the reasons why I’m teaching my kids to swim and learn about water safety asap, because it’s never too late to learn.

May 20, 2017 is the 6th annual National Learn To Swim Day. It’s the perfect time for all of us to raise awareness about this valuable life skill. SwimWays has been leading the way for years, teaching kids how to swim and about water safety. They make it fun by sharing many ways to celebrate National Learn To Swim Day. So, how will you celebrate the day? For ideas on how you can participate, check out the Teach Me To Swim Website.

“Look Daddy, we’ve been over this a thousand times. I know what I’m doing now.” Learning and Teaching To Swim Just Got Easier | Naturally Stellar

Founder, Editor-in-Chief of Women's Lifestyle Blog, Naturally Stellar | Beauty Contributor for Hype Hair Magazine | Freelance Writer and Content Creator|
Candice is a passionate Nashville-based writer with a love for beauty, urban lifestyle, songwriting, travel, food and business. When she's not busy being Wonder Woman to her family, out exploring or catching up on her British dramas, you can find her sharing something interesting on her blog. Which more than likely she probably wrote at Noon, while eating a bowl of Captain Crunch.

I definitely want my future children to learn how to swim as soon as possible. I’m not too comfortable swimming in deep water but if you give me a jacket, I will gladly hop into the ocean without a question. lol

I didn’t learn to swim until I was an adult and I still have some trouble. I wanted to do more activities when traveling so I had to bite that bullet. This is a good tool for kids. I wish I learned to swim as a kid. I always tell myself that’s definitely something I would invest in for my children.

Great review, and you are so right to teach swimming as early as possible. I almost drowned as a child and its why I never learned for fear of drowning again. This surely beats the old school water floaties.

Those things are so perfect. I have seen them before in the pool and I’m sure my cousin will have one next year for her baby. I think they are perfect. They also have you not worrying as much. If I was a mother I’d have many different colors.

You are right swimming is a needed life skill. It’s good to start teaching them young and removing the fear of water. I love that device it looks comfortable and most importantly safe definitely useful when it comes to learning how to float. I low key want an adult size one to just chill on the pool after a long day! Wonderful post! Thank you for sharing.

🙂 lol. Hey it’s never too late to learn. I didn’t learn until I was in my 30’s. I took a community swim class for adults. It was one of my best decisions in life and it was only about $60 for the whole swim series. It’s funny, most of the people in my class were over 50. Pool noodles, goggles and Kick boards are great beginner swim tools. You can do it!

Nice…this sure would have been helpful when I was little. I didn’t have a terrible experience but it wasn’t too much fun either. Lots of water up the nose and down the throat…and let’s just say that I never did master diving!

My first experience was at a beach and it was pretty much that. Water up the nose. I can remember being dunked under the water when I was unprepared. Not a good experience. Someday I’ll master diving. Right now I’m trying to master proper breathing.

That’s awesome you are teaching your little one how to swim. Do they make that floaty also in adult size? Just kidding. I have to tell my cousin who just had a little boy about this. Thanks for sharing.

How adorable! I had one sort of like this but this one seems a lot better made. As a pool owner I know that teaching our children to swim and become accustomed to water safety from the very start was very important.